In Season

Between learning how to spin, how to knit, how to make soap, how to play fiddle and continuing all the other things I can do like crocheting, sewing, coming up with business ideas, cooking, baking, and attempting to be Susie Homesteader of the Year, I am exhausted! I sit and look at the baby now. Spend hours reading and thinking about what I should be doing right this very minute but alas, no motivation. I want to plan my garden but don’t know where my garden will be. I want to get things ready for the farmer’s market early, but I am too busy looking at the new baby. I have actually been perusing sites pricing out washers. *gasp*

(Not my farm, one I borrowed off the internet. Lovely, isn’t it?)

And then I realize, this is my body giving me a time out. We are leaving behind the skill learning, trying to keep warm, time of winter and are about to embark on the craziness of Spring, Summer, and Autumn before we get to rest again! I am just taking it easy before the whirlwind of being a farmer. Which this year, I perhaps will actually be. I really want to spin. I want to practice. After how much money I spent, Doug really wants me to practice! But I feel like spinning is for January in front of the wood stove watching the snow fall. So, while I was sitting doing nothing I came up with this list for what feels natural depending on the time of year.

Summer

Planting

Farmer’s markets

Canning

Drying food

(Why on paper does summer look like the easiest season? Holy smokes, it is a fast paced, never stopping season!)

Autumn

Harvesting

Drying

Canning

Weather proofing

Wine and Cider

Stock up on wood and kerosene

Stock up on food staples

Harvest honey

Winter

Sewing

Hobbies

Spinning

Crochet/Knitting

Plan for next season’s garden

Make soap

Spring

Shearing animals

Planting

Can staples before kitchen gets too hot

Farm clean-up

Spring cleaning

Make goals for farm season

Start seeds indoors

Clean out coops and animal enclosures

Maple sugaring

Sew new sundresses and aprons

I can’t really do most of this because I don’t have a farm…yet. Remember this is the adventures of an ex-city girl becoming a farmgirl. I need to be getting out the new spiral notebook I bought to record garden happenings and seed selection and start plotting. Perhaps I am doing nothing because I am in limbo. Which garden do I plot? We need to make a decision this week. I guess I am waiting for a sign….

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No wonder I like fall and winter best; stocking up on things and hobbies are what I like best 🙂 Asthma and overweight makes outdoor tasks difficult, summer heat is something I have always disliked, and am too good at killing plants. I really wanted to grow raspberries and rhubarb and will try to plant them again soon but it was very dissapointing last year when I killed everything. A kind friend had given me twenty raspberry sets from her yard but in worrying about the drought I overwatered and did them in. I bought two more from a nursery but sprayed them (and the rhubarb and iris) with stuff to keep grasshoppers and deer away which killed them quickly. No sign of anything living in that part of the yard now 😦

I think Fall is my favorite. Everything is winding down, the earth is so beautiful, anticipation for the holidays, cooling off, just wonderful! (Of course, now I am a little too cooled off! Bring on spring!)

Farmgirl school is my long time blog about all things homesteading and simple living. From canning, to celebrating the old agricultural holidays, to making wine, to chasing chickens, we live in the moment and savor the good life on our urban farm. My husband and I live in a 93 year old adobe farmhouse in Pueblo, Colorado with several cats, chickens, and a farm dog puppy. My daughter and I own White Wolf Medicine, a traditional herbal pharmacy. All of my books can be found on Amazon at http://Amazon.com/author/katiesanders